1. A Borrow ed B ill Passed Betw een Two C ards.
THE EFFECT:— Two cards freely chosen from any deck, are fastened together with rubber bands which encircle them lengthways and sideways, and are then placed in an envelope, which is closed and held by a spectator. A borrowed bill is vanished and is found in the envelope between the two cards. The number of the bill is verified.
THE W O R K IN G :— Two bills with the same number are required. (Page 6). Fold one of them into a small flat packet, about 1| in. by 1 in. and finger palm it. From a pack of cards, your own or borrowed, let two cards be freely chosen, the palmed bill will not be in the way and you keep it concealed under the cards. Receive thè first card in the left hand, the right still holding the pack. Show the card back and front, put the pack down and take the card in the right hand, sliding it under the bill, and hold this pressed against the back with the tip of the thumb, the fingers on the face of the card.
In the same way take the second chosen card with the left hand, show it front and back and put it on the back of the card in the right hand, the hidden bill thus coming between the two. Stretch several small rubber bands around them both ways, making the tension such that the cards are held together tightly but are not bent. Drop the cards into an envelope which has been examined, close it and let a spectator hold it. Up to this time you have laid stress on the names of the cards leading all to expect a card trick is to.follow.
Borrow a bill and by one or other of the switches or flourishes the duplicate is brought into play. Have the number recorded and later vanish it by any method that appeals to you. Finally the bill is recovered from between the two cards in the closed envelope which the spectator takes from his pocket and opens himself. The onlookers not knowing anything about the possibility of the bills having the same numbers will find the feat an insolvable mystery.
2. B ill Passed In s id e A P la y in g C a rd .
As usual two bills with the same number are necessary. One is folded flat to a retangular shape just a little smaller than a playing card. Split a card, preferably a court card, place the folded bill between the two parts and then glue them together at the edges, being very careful not to get any glue on the bill. Dry the reconstructed card under heavy pressure.
To do the feat place the prepared card in your right hand trousers pocket, and a duplicate of the card on the top of the pack. Force this card on a spectator and, as he holds it up for all to see, palm, the pre pared card from your pocket and add it to the top. Let the spectator put the card face down on the pack in your left hand, as you take a fountain pen from a vest pocket. Hand him the pen, make a double lift bringing the prepared card face up on top, hold the deck firmly squared as he writes his initials on the card. Slide this card off the deck at the same moment turning the cards over towards your body so that no glimpse can be had of the duplicate card now face up on top. Lay the pack down on your table with this card below the rest and safely out of sight.
Put the initalled card in the spectator’s pocket: if it has been well prepared you may let him do this himself. Borrow a bill and either call the number wrongly from figures on your thumb nail, or switch the bill for your duplicate in the course of an impromptu trick and then have its number taken. Vanish by one of the methods already given '(page 16) announcing that you will pass the bill into the spectator’s clenched fist. Make him hold his hand closed above his head. Order the bill to pass into the his fist: it vanishes but he doesn’t get it. Assert positively that he must have it somewhere: he searches his pockets and so on, Finally remember the initialled card. The spectator takes it out, tears it open and extracts the bill. The number is checked and found to be the same, proof positive of its magical transit.
3. Q u ic k C h a n g e .
The effect of this pretty trick is that a $1 bill is magically changed to coins of the number shown by spots of a chosen playing card.
The necessary articles are— a wine glass, a tube made by rolling a piece of thick paper and fastening it with paper clips at top and bottom, a pack of cards, ten coins— half dollar, quarter, dime, two nickles and five pennies— and a piece of tissue paper. The tube must be large enough to cover the wine glass and high enough to hide a small parcel placed on its foot. From the pack take the four tens and any other three cards and reverse them all on the bottom, so that when the pack is turned over the four tens will be on top.
Wrap the coins in the tissue paper, turn the wineglass upside down, place the package on its foot and over all place the paper tube.
Begin the trick by borrowing a dollar bill: wrap it in tissue paper, making a packet as much like the coin packet as is possible. Look around for the wineglass, then remember that it is in the paper tube: lift this off, gripping the packet of coins against the side. Figure 26.
Turn the glass right side up, put the bill package inside it and cover it again with the tube, at the same time leaving the coin package there also.
Take up the pack of cards and shuffle it freely as far as the top three-quarters is concerned, but keeping the reversed cards in place on the bottom. Let a spectator make a free cut, drop the left hand to your side asking him if he is satisfied: bring your left hand up again with its back uppermost so that the packet is turned over. Deal off the four top cards of this packet, the four tens, and have one chosen but not looked at.
Now propose to have the bill divide itself into the exact number of pieces indicated by the spots on the chosen card. Remove the tube, gripping the bill package, let this drop into a well and lay the tube on its side, end towards the spectators. The chosen card is turned over, it has ten spots. The package is taken from the glass and the coins are counted by the owner of the bilfl, ten coins exactly.
FIG. 2 5 FIG. 2 S
4. A B ill Is B u rn e d .
A novel idea is introduced in this trick by L. A. Winter in the Dec. No. 1934 of the indispensable Magic Wand.
Fold an imitation bill (stage money) into a very small square packet, creasing it tightly: put this in your right hand trousers pocket, together with a good bill. Introduce the feat as one demonstrating a curious chemical experiment in connection with bills in which you will use one of your own and one borrowed bill. Bring out your own bill and palm the dummy at the same time. Have the number of your bill plainly written on a slate by a spectator, then fold it just as the dummy is folded and hold the two together in your fingers as one bill: show all parts of your hands, unostentatiously but plainly, to convince everybody that one bill only is in evidence, but don’t SAY anything to that effect.
Drop the dummy into a glass on the right hand side of your table, drawing back the real bill into the finger palm position. Now borrow a bill from the person who wrote the number of your bill on the slate and let him record the number of his below yours. Take the bill from him and fold it the same way, switching it for your own and drop this into a glass on the left of the table. The position then is this. . . . dummy bill
in the right hand glass, your own bill in the left hand glass and the borrowed bill palmed. Drop this into your coat pocket in taking out a box of matches. Keep the glasses well separated so that there will be no confusion in the minds of the spectators.
Take out your bill, as you say, really the fake: open it out keeping it covered as much as possible and crease it into a long spill, when its falseness cannot be noticed. Light a match and, to prove that under cer tain conditions, a bill will not burn, draw it through the flame: do this successfully twice, but the third time allow it to catch fire and drop it into the glass to burn away completely. Act as if you were upset by your failure and apologise for it, but after all, you say, no great harm has been done, you have merely lost a dollar. Offer to try again with the spectator’s money and ask his permission to try the experiment again, taking out his (?) bill and opening it out. He will probably object, es pecially as you refuse to guarantee it will succeed this time. Probably he will object. Anyway read out the number which proves that the bill you now hold is yours, so that the bill destroyed must have been the spectator’s.
The situation is an intriguing one and it is up to you to reproduce the boiTowed bill in as surprising a way as possible. For instance you may borrow a cigarette to soothe your nerves and do the latest version of the bill and cigarette trick, see page 33.
5. Borrow ed B ill V a n ish e d a n d F o u n d in S p e c ta to r’s H a n d .
This trick has an amusing, not to say startling and unexpected finish. Prepare two envelopes of flash paper, exactly alike, and in one, A., place a folded piece of flash paper, to represent a folded bill: lay the other envelope, empty, beside a candle. Put an old watch from which the works have been removed in your left trousers pocket with a book of paper matches: vest envelope A. and you are ready to show the feat.
Borrow a bill and have the number recorded. Fold it into a small square packet, creasing the folds tightly, making it about the same size as the packet in envelope A. and put it in envelope B. which you have brought down with you. Return to stage and, without moving your elbows, keeping them pressed to your sides, fold B. in half and palm it, as you would a playing card, in the left hand, draw A. from the vest and hold it in the right hand just as B. was held. Take the matches from the left trousers pocket, leaving B. there. Strike a match and light a candle on your table: hold envelope A. in front of the flame to show that the bill is still there, the folded piece of flash paper simulates this. In the meantime
you have replaced the matches with your left hand, broken the envelope B. abstracted the note and put it in the watch, which was left open for that very purpose. Your right side is towards the spectators and your whole attention is given to the envelope A. so that the action of the left hand is hidden completely.
Ask the owner of the note to hold his left hand closed above his head and announce that you will pass the bill invisibly right back into his hand. Strike an attitude as if about to do this, then, having palmed the watch in the meantime, put your left hand to the lower left vest pocket and pretend to lift the watch out and unhook it from the c hain. Take the watch to the spectator and put it in his hand, at the same time making a pretence of noting the exact second so that the flight of the bill may be timed.
Have him hold the watch in his closed right hand above his head. Hold up envelope A. and in making a great fuss about getting the corr ect elevation, draw near the table and accidentally bring the envelope in to the flame of the candle and with the usual result. . . a flash and nothing left.“That was faster than I intended. Will you show us that the bill has arrived. I think it broke the record that time.” The spectator protests that the bill hasn’t reached him. After arguing with him as long as it causes amusement, offer to let him keep the watch in settlement, leading him on to open the case to examine it. Much to his astonishment he finds the bill and identifies it as his own by the number. So your reputation as a wizard is not only re-established but enhanced.
6. T he B ill I n T he C a n d le .
a. This trick has been worked in various forms by generations of magi cians: it has stood the test of time and creates as much surprise today as ever it did. For stage presentation a mechanical candle is required which will be described later: for club or parlor the following is a good method. On your table place these articles, a business envelope, prepared blotting pad, (page 15) with a duplicate initialled envelope in which is a slip of paper folded to represent a bill, fountain pen, candle in candlestick: be hind a screen put a tray, table knife and small piece of candle, hollowed out.
To present the trick, ask for the loan of a bill and have the owner record its number carefully. Have a boy bring the bill to you. Show the envelope, fold the bill, place it inside and close the flap. Write your in itials on its face and switch for the duplicate envelope in blotting the writing. Add the boy’s name and blot this in the same way but keeping part of the envelope in view all the time. Hand the envelope to the boy, light the candle and put it in his other hand. Tell him to hold the envel ope in front of the candle to show that the bill is still there, whispering
to him to let it catch fire. As the envelope burns, pick up the blotter, go behind the screen, take out the bill, push it into the hollow candle and palm it, pick up tray with knife on it and return to the stage. This is all done in a moment or two, while the audience is enjoying the discomfiture of the owner of the bill. Place the tray on the table and work up as amusing a scene with the boy as you can. “Would you like to pay up now or after the show? Afterwards? Very well, does that suit you, sir? (to the owner of the bill). “No? You want it now? Well, (to boy) what are you going to do about it?”
Finally cut a small piece from end of the candle that was lighted and cut the remainder into three parts about equal and have one piece freely chosen. Stand it on the table just in front of a well, take the tray and the other two pieces and toss them out to the audience.
Hand the tray to the boy to hold. Pick up the chosen piece of candle, really dropping it into the well and showing the palmed piece. Score this round the middle with the knife on the tray, keeping the left thumb over the hollow end, break it in half and show the bill projecting from one side. Let the boy take it out holding it with the tips of his fingers, and return it to the lender who identifies the number.
A
FIG. 2 r
b. In this method resort is had to the use of duplicate bills of your own, (page 6), one of which is inserted in a candle by carefully cutting an oblong hole, just large enough to take the bill folded and rolled very small, the candle is then placed in a candlestick, the good side to the front. Alongside this place a piece of tissue paper and under that a piece of flash paper, crumpled into a ball.
To present the trick begin by borrowing a bill and switching it by whatever method you have made your own, then have the number of your own bill recorded. W ith your left hand pick up the tissue paper and the ball of flash paper behind it: with your right hand very openly crumple the bill, put it on tissue paper and roll up the bill in it, squeez ing it against the ball of flash paper tightly and holding both as one. Pass them into the left hand, letting all parts of both hands be seen very plainly: in this action you have turned the balls over, the flash paper coming uppermost. Let the bill packet drop to the root of the left little finger, a slight contraction of which will hold it securely, and take the flash ball in the right hand. Approach the candle (previously lighted)
and pretending to show that the bill is inside the paper, let it touch the flame, instantly drawing back the hand. A ball of flame results, leaving nothing: at the same moment drop the other packet in your left coat pocket. Apologise for the accident and if you can appear to be really discqncerted, so much the better for the effect.
Finally cut the candle into three pieces and lay them in line, the loaded one in the middle, and have one chosen. If the middle piece is called for, toss out the other two: if one of the end ones, toss it out and resort to the “right or left” . . . “my right your left” dodge, and toss out the other unprepared piece. Score the loaded piece in the middle and break it in half, the thumbs covering the cut at the back. The bill will then project from one part, drop the other into your pocket and let the owner take the bill from the remaining part, Get rid of this piece as the number of the bill is verified.
c. M e c h a n ic a l C a n d le , Stage V ersion.
A special pistol is required: in the barrel of this is a tube covered with glossy white paper, making it appear to be a piece of candle. The tube has the edges of one end turned very slightly to prevent it sliding